Manny Acta, Meet Brian Davis

I noted this above, but I thought it needed special emphasis. There's a very nice Baseball America interview with Manny Acta and Fredi Gonazlez in which they talk about being first-time MLB managers. Acta has obviously already shown that he doesn't mince words about very serious stuff, and this isn't serious, but his comments on hiring new blood are still worth noting:

Heck, I feel happy too. (Lawrence Jackson - AP)

I'm glad that, I don't want to call it the Recycle Era, it's kind of over. I'm glad they're taking chances on other guys. There are not that many geniuses out there. In this game, once you spend more than 10 years and pay attention to it, there's only so many trick plays and new things in baseball that you can learn that we've not learned. Fredi and I already know that in the eighth inning, game tied, first and second, no outs and our eighth hitter up--even the guy selling popcorn up there knows that you're going to bunt. It's the other part of the game.

Later, he repeats something he mentioned during his introductory press conference: that he'll be able to relate to his players' music and clothing choices, which ought to be bloggable, although there was a lot of Justin Timberlake in the Nats clubhouse last year, and I'm not sure how much I'd want Manny to relate to that.